In the Here and Now
by MoonlightMystery13.3
Summary: Set after the events of Bionic Action Hero, Chase makes a joke about him being dead. Bree breaks a little, haunted by how close it really was to being true. T, just to be on the safe side.


"Bree?" Inquired Chase, mere days after the incident with Giselle. We were sitting in our quarters. I was reading a novel, and Chase had been doing some sort of research on his Epad before he'd broken the silence.

I lowered my book. "Yes?"

He continued, lightly, but something made me shift uneasily. I wasn't sure I would like what was coming.

"There's something that's been bothering me. You know when you came in and the android was where I was supposed to be?"

I shuddered inadvertently, closing my eyes for an instant. Remember I did. The sight of my little brother stretched out on that table, cold, still and without breath or pulse was one that I knew would haunt me forever.

"Yes, Chase? What about it?" I replied with as little concern as I could muster, closing my book and standing up to hide my slightly shaking hands.

"You thought it was me. But there was no blood. How did you guys manage to miss that particular detail?" There was playful sarcasm in every syllable, yet his words sickened me. I sat back down rather suddenly, having envisioned for the first time what that scene would have looked like if it had been Chase on that table...

Red. Red everywhere, all over his too pale, still face. Red covering his black shirt, and the sheet which covered him. Red spattered the walls. Red pooling on the floor beneath him...

"-ee? Bree, are you alright?"

I came back to earth in a rush to see my younger brother crouched in front of my chair, badly concealed concern swirling in his steel blue eyes. His Epad lay forgotten on the floor behind him. "What's wrong? Should I get Mr. Davenport?"

I did my best to smile at him, probably failing miserably. "No, no, I'm fine. I'm... just not quite ready to joke about that, Chase. When we came in... you were lying so still. Your hands were so cold... You didn't have a pulse, and you weren't breathing. We… thought you were dead."

Chase stirred uncomfortably. "Well, I mean, that was sort of the point-"

I cut him off. "Chase," I said, looking him straight in the eye, allowing the memories of that night to wash over me, feeling all the despair, regret, bitterness, and self hate I'd kept bottled up since that night. Chase must have seen the change in my eyes because moments later, he furrowed his brow like he did whenever something was wrong.

"Chase," I said again, having now his full attention, "We came in and we thought that you were dead. We thought that you were dead because we were too late. Because we weren't fast enough. We weren't really thinking straight, so neither of us thought about… about the- the blood." I choked out that horrible word, and a knot grew in my throat. I continued, lost in memories. " And I- I blamed myself. For getting you into that mess to begin with. For making you a target. For forgetting how much you meant you me over a cute boy. For betraying you. I was too late, Chase." I was opening sobbing now. "I, a bionic human with superspeed, was too slow to save my brother from a horrible death. I was too slow, and-" I burst into a fresh onslaught of tears. "I killed you, Chase!"

Instantly his arms were around me, and he was murmuring soothing nonsense in my ear. I closed my eyes, and melted into his embrace, suddenly exhausted. I had come so, so close to losing this, my brother who was not afraid to give comfort where it was needed. The brother who knew what was wrong before I did. The one I could rely on for anything. My sensitive genius of a little brother. Chase was so much to everyone.

And we never told him.

That thought scared me most of all. That my little brother almost died because of me, and I never even told him how much he meant to me, to us. How much he did for us. How much we would miss him.

After several minutes, Chase let me go, and, sitting back on his heels, looked me in the eye. "Bree, that was _not_ your fault," he said, seriously and steadily. "Troy tricked you. You had nothing to do with my capture. True, you gave them the schematics, but then you uncovered Giselle's plot. You saved our lives on that set. You worked to find out where I was and didn't stop until you found me. You fought Troy and Giselle to get to me." He broke off, running a hand through his hair, sighing slightly. "What I'm trying to say, Bree, is that yes, you made a mistake, but you did everything in your power to fix it. So you can't blame yourself. I don't. It was a mistake anyone could have made."

I let the pain and fear I'd felt at seeing my brother dead leak into my voice.

"I almost got you killed, Chase."

He just smiled that crooked smile of his, and shrugged.

"But you didn't. I'm alive, Bree, in the here and now. Why live in the past?"

He straightened up, and offered me a hand. "Well, I want to get some of that lemon bread of Tasha's that Mr. Davenport says he's brought back, before Adam eats it all. You with me?"

I took his hand, letting him pull me to my feet, and smiled. "Always, Chase, always."


End file.
